So, Custom Servers are coming. The official announcement is here: https://www.seaofthieves.com/news/custom-servers-update and Captain Falcore discusses them in his latest YouTube video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3CcU8-3Rac
These will NOT be PvE-only servers. Gold and progression may not be earned. This post is not an argument for that, and please do not turn this thread into a discussion about PvE-only servers. I simply want to make some requests about the features I would like to see in a Custom Server.
My interest in Custom Servers is using them for content creation: exploring, mapping, photography (screen shots), and machinima (movie making on the Sea of Thieves). We are told there will be the ability to customise "ship numbers and types prior to starting" but "no gold or reputation progression from Custom Server sessions". I am cool with that. But, I would like to see much more control.
REQUIRED FEATURES
- All voyage types, including all Tall Tales, should remain. This would allow content creators like me to provide things like my Riddle Guide or machinima makers to make movies of pirates doing a Tall Tale.
- Pirates enter a session with all the cosmetics or equipment they have earned in the real world, but no real gold. Instead every player enters the session with enough "fake" gold to buy the quests, costumes and props they may need for the session.
- It should even be possible to hand in a chest to the Gold Hoarders, or a skull to the OOS, etc. Just do not allow the gold to be kept beyond the current session.
SESSION CONFIGURATION
Session creators should be able to set the following features as they configure the server:
- Turn on or off world events, such as Skull Forts, appearances of the Megalodon, Flameheart's ghost fleet, the Kraken, etc. There should be individual controls for each such event.
- Control the frequency of island skellies: from "Never" to "Annoyingly Constant"
- Control whether Storms and Fog appear.
IN-SESSION "CHEATS"
In addition to configuration of the server before the session begins, it would be cool to be allow the server controller to tweak stuff during the session:
- Control the weather. Turn Storm or Fog on (centred on a location), or off; and set the direction of the wind!
- Control the time of day, and perhaps allow the ability to "stop time" (providing consistent light for photos or machinima).
- Trigger an PvE event: ranging from the popping up of an island skelly, to the appearance of Flameheart and his squadrons of ships on a chosen island.
- The only PvE event that should NOT be allowed is triggering the Shrouded Ghost. We don't want YouTube filled with videos of people "defeating" this mythical beast.
- Ability to toggle off and on name plates above players.
PRICING
If we could have all this, I would pay good money for a Custom Server. Which brings me to pricing. I imagine a subscription style pricing model, which allows an individual to set up a Custom Server any number of times in a month. If the server was wanted permanently, the subscription price would be paid each month. I imagine something like $10 USD or €10 per month to be about right. For me that would be about $15 AUD.
(Moved this thread from Insiders Forum because this post is a speculative wish list, and contains nothing known only to Insiders)
